Jules Solves the Equation
by isis-sg1
Summary: While investigating a case, Juliet puts 2 and 2 together and discovers something about Shawn that doesn't shock her.


Sometimes Shawn sees things without really looking. Like the time when he was walking through the math department at Santa Barbara University because Gus wanted to do an evening course and they got lost looking for the admissions office. He wasn't looking at the chalk boards covered in equations through the open door they passed, it doesn't mean he didn't see them.

It's only fate that finds him in that classroom two days later. There's a dead mathematician on the floor surrounded by cops and forensic guys and covered in unmarked math papers. He looks up at the chalkboard on the wall and the grey smudged marks where the equations had once been. The patterns and squiggles and numbers reduced to chalk dust.

"It's such a shame." Shawn spins round and faces a young petite woman with glasses larger than her face and an oversized textbook hugged to her chest. She continues, "Professor Yates was working on something huge, would have won him the Fields medal."

Shawn frowns, "Fields medal?"

She nods, "It's like the Nobel Prize of mathematics, it's a really big deal." She gives him a half shrug, "The twenty thousand prize money doesn't hurt either."

_Motive_ Shawn's mind tells him. "And this thing he was working on, it was on the board?"

She confirms with a nod, "I kept telling him to back it up on computer, but he never listened. For a young guy he practically lived in the dark ages, didn't even own a cell phone."

Shawn nods. He turns back to face the front of the classroom and watches Lassiter and O'Hara discuss the case. They're out of earshot, but he knows what they are talking about. He's spent enough time around the two detectives to know what they're thinking. Serves him well when he's doing his psychic routine.

He debates going over and making a scene just to bother the head detective. It's like a sport to him now, how quick can he be thrown from a room. Instead he turns and leaves without a word. He makes his way back to the psych office, stopping briefly on the way for a smoothie.

Gus is absent from the office when Shawn finally strides through the door. Gus mentioned something about covering a co-worker's route yesterday which Shawn is glad about. It's easier to concentrate that way. He dumps his bag and his smoothie on his desk and delves into the closet for the transparent dry erase board. He wheels it out into the middle of the room and grabs a couple of pens from his desk drawer, one red, one blue.

He's never been able to explain how his mind works. Gus has given up asking. It's not like there's an easy answer. His mind just _works_, there isn't a step by step process. He barely even has to work hard at it. It's like breathing to him. He knows his mind works differently to most people's, just don't ask him how or why.

He uncaps the blue pen with his teeth and spits the lid out before lifting the pen to the board. He closes his eyes tightly and tries to ignores his dad's voice in his head as he pulls the memory from two days ago to the front of his mind. He saw the chalkboard for less than a moment but it was enough. He opens his eyes and starts writing.

********

Juliet had seen Shawn at the crime scene. Had watched him talk to Yates' assistant from the corner of her eye. She was just waiting for him to come over and give her some insight into the case like only he can whilst simultaneously pissing off her partner. She was surprised when she watched him leave without a word. It wasn't like the Shawn she'd grown to know.

Once Lassiter had finished barking orders at her she escaped the crime scene and made her way to the car. It takes twenty extra minutes to drive from the university to Shawn's office. Some car had ploughed into a truck in the middle of the road cars lined the streets, overheated drivers honking their horns and growing angrier by the second. She parks beside Shawn's bike and makes her way into the office.

The door is wide open and she steps inside the air conditioned office quietly. Shawn is standing with his back to her scribbling on a clear dry board. It's only when she looks properly that she realises it's not scribbles it's numbers. Numbers in brackets, divided by x and y and multiplied by symbols Juliet's never seen before.

She's never understood advances math, and she doubts Shawn understands it either. She knows he's smart but not Good Will Hunting smart. So how is he writing the complicated equation without even thinking about it?

A moment later she clears his throat and Shawn spins round, jumping slightly. "Jules," he says to greet her.

She smiles, "Shawn."

"What are you doing here?"

"I came here to," she doesn't finish her sentence. There's no point. "What is that?" She nods towards the board.

"Nothing," Shawn says quickly, "Just messing around, pretending to be Charlie Eppes."

Juliet frowns, "Who?"

"You need to watch more TV."

"I don't have time to watch more TV," she counters easily. He heels clack against the wooden floor as she takes three steps towards the board. "Is that," she frowns and tilts her head to one side as she studies the equations. "Is that Yates' theory?"

"No," Shawn shakes his head. "Maybe," he admits a moment later.

"How did you-"

"Psychic Vibes," Shawn lies effortlessly.

"Did you see this? On the chalkboard at the university?" She questions him. "How would I have seen it?"She doesn't know how but pieces start to form in her mind, like clouds parting and her vision clearing. She doesn't know why it's this case, this equation that makes her see the truth. "Shawn," she begins. "Do you have a photographic memory?"

"A photo-what?"

Juliet frowns, "Don't do that, don't treat me like an idiot. I'm not an idiot."

He's taken aback for a moment. "I don't think you're stupid," he tells her and she knows he's telling the truth. His eyes fall to the floor and the discarded pen lid. He picks it up and clicks it back on to the pen before placing the pen on his desk beside his lukewarm smoothie. "Me and Gus were on campus Wednesday," he admits. He doesn't know why he does, he can't explain why he's admitting the truth to cop he's been lying to for three years.

"You saw the equations on the board." Shawn nods. "And you remembered them?" Shawn nods again. "Well _that_ explains _a lot."_

"Why aren't you pissed at me?"

"I guess deep down I've always known," She shrugs.

"Are you going to tell on me to the Chief?" Shawn has to know.

"What would that achieve?" She asks. "You're too good at this."

Shawn's relieved, even though he knows Gus is going to have a coronary when he finds out Juliet knows. "So what now?"

"Now you solve the case," She turns and makes her way back to the doorway.

"Jules?" She pauses and turns to face him. "It was the assistant."

"Huh?"

"The assistant did it. She killed Yates for the equations," he doesn't need to tell her about the chalk marks on the assistant's sleeves or the blood spatter on her shoe. He's not going to do all the work for her.

Juliet grins. "Good to know," she says before disappearing out the door.

Shawn turns back to face the board, reaches for his smoothie blindly and takes a sip.


End file.
